This invention generally relates to personalized or targeted advertisements. More specifically, the invention relates to distributing such advertisements to a specific electronic media device, such as a television, based on user information sent to that media device by one or more users who are watching or listening to that specific media device.
Advertising has become extremely common. Businesses advertise goods and services to consumers using print ads in newspapers and magazines, direct mail, telemarketing, television commercials, radio commercials, sponsorships, promotional offers, paid search results, banner adds on the Internet, and in many other ways.
A television advertisement or commercial, for example, is a form of advertising in which goods, services, organizations, ideas, etc. are promoted via the medium of television. Most commercials are produced by an outside advertising agency, and airtime is purchased from a television channel or network. Usually, television advertisements consist of advertising spots, ranging in length from a few seconds to several minutes, appearing between shows or show segments. This advertising method has been used over the years to sell different products, from household products to goods and services to political campaigns. This method of screening advertisements is intended to capture the attention of the audience, keeping the viewers focused on the television show so that they may watch the advertisements while waiting for the next segment of the show. Despite the general success of advertising, many specific advertisements are shown to uninterested viewers who are not currently interested in the advertised goods or services.
Given the importance and expense of advertising and the increasing difficulty in reaching the desired audience, extensive efforts have been made to provide advertising that is targeted to specific individuals and deliverable to these individuals in a more effective manner. Such personalized advertising generally involves obtaining information about a user's behavior or the media content that is viewed by the user and identifying advertisements to present to the user based on the information.
Certain targeted advertising schemes are being developed where the user provides personal information that identifies preferences for advertisements of a particular type, style, with particular content, and the like. As the specificity of the personal information increases, the effectiveness of selecting advertisements of interest for the user increases. For example, a user may provide personal information that indicates they are interested in cooking, travel, and automobiles, and based on the personal information, cooking, travel, and automobile related advertising is selected for delivery and presentation to the user.
Personalized advertising systems generally maintain a profile for a given user or household associated with a user. The profile is used to store the general or specific profile information that is obtained from the user or about the user from any number of sources. The profile information is then used to select advertisements to present to the user.
While the use of profiles has proven helpful, targeted advertisements have not heretofore specifically taken into account the fact that many televisions are viewed by different groups of people at different times. Televisions are installed in many places, such as offices, hotels, restaurants, train stations, airports, etc., where many different people watch the televisions at different times. For example, one group of people may be in a restaurant for lunch and watch a particular television. A completely different group of people may be in the same restaurant for dinner and watch the same television. Some of the advertisements shown on the television may be of interest to some of the people in each group but not to others. In fact, in both groups some of the people may be bored or irritated by the advertisements.
There are many cases where personalized television advertisements can be configured; and in these cases, the television advertisements can be displayed based on the configuration. This is more of a static type of profile. These types of personalized television advertisements may not be useful in many places, such as offices, hotels, restaurants, and other places, where the television viewers change rapidly. The advertisements shown in these places may create frustration among the viewers, and the advertiser does not benefit from the advertisement.